So hey, I’m Daniel and my focus is on the software part of Founders’ Fortune.

I’ve been making games since I learned how to program and kept making them in my spare time during university. This game is just the latest of a string of projects, but it’s the best one so far!
Sometimes I make stuff for other game devs, like this tutorial I made some time ago or this website that visualises 3D-rotations (they can be more difficult to get right than you might think!).
I finished my computer science degree and now I’m looking forward to pour all of my time into game dev!

How did you find out about Founders’ Fortune?
On a train ride in summer 2017 I first started thinking about how a colony simulator with Sims-like components would feel like. I started playing around with it soon after, but was busy working in Seattle for a lot of 2018 – now I’m back!

Have you played other colony simulators before? Base building games?
Base building is one of the most fun concepts in gaming in my opinion. From strategy games to Minecraft to games like the Sims, I think giving the player more tools to build their own thing is always a good idea.

What’s your favorite other game? Why?
I need to be careful about when I turn on factorio because it absolutely demolishes my productivity. Kerbal Space Program used to be one of my favorites, too. Understanding difficult game mechanics can be a way better progression system than unlocking some items, and KSP pulled it off perfectly.

What’s your opinion on Indie games vs big budget blockbusters?
There are some AAA titles everyone needs to try, but Indie keeps it fresh, so that’s what I prefer nowadays.

Hello world, my name is René and I’m responsible for all the visual things you see when playing Founders’ Fortune.

I’ve been playing games ever since I got my GameBoy Color with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone when I was 6 years old. Since then I’ve tried more and more games from various genres. Some of the many games that have a special place in my heart are: Super Mario 64, Age of Empires 2 & 3, The Sly Cooper Trilogy, Gothic 3, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Minecraft, Call of Duty Moder Warfare 2, Battlefield 3, Starcraft II (plus Extensions). Over the last few years I started playing more and more indie games since they often have a different and very refreshing approach. Games like Stardew Valley, Factorio or Deep Rock Galactic keep me more busy then AAA titles lately.

Games that involve (base) building like Age of Empires, Anno, Sims and even Rollercoaster Tycoon have always been my top time killers as I love the creative aspect of creating and thereby influencing the game world.
At some point around the 11th grade I realized that designing ingame or playing around with map generators is no longer enough for me. My friend Daniel introduced me to Blender, a very decent piece of freeware 3D-Software that, while very time consuming to learn at first, offers all the tools you need to start off making 3D-Art for games or movies.
Ever since then I’ve been working together with Daniel on multiple projects and enhanced my modeling, animating, and texturing skills. Having just finished my elementary school teaching degree, I took the chance to start working on our game more seriously. I’m very excited and can’t wait to see how it will turn out!

I dug up some screenshots of our previous projects. Thought some people might be interested.

Our first project was inspired by Minecraft’s building capabilities and we tried to do a similar survival game without blocks. Not the most original idea and we didn’t have any experience yet, but it was a lot of fun to create.

My name is Tom and I enjoy gaming as well as programming from time to time.

How did you find out about Founders’ Fortune?
I stumbled upon it through reddit on the /r/BaseBuilding subreddit. It looked interesting and is right up my alley so I had to check it out.

Have you played other colony simulators before? Base building games? What do you like about them?
I’ve dabbled in Dwarf Fortress and I’ve played some Rimworld. There’s a lot to say when it comes to what I get out of colony sims. The basebuilding aspect is something I thoroughly enjoy, both making a base look visually appealing while maintaining efficiency for the colony keeps me busy for the majority of my playthroughs. Other aspects such as developing skills and taking on random challenges really keeps the game fresh and unique between each playthrough.

What’s your favorite other game? Why?
This is something that is always changing, but if I were to pick a game that I gave me the best experience it would have to be Knights of the Old Republic. The dialogue, the story, and the characters really built a wonderful experience for me. I go back and replay it from time to time and I continue to delve into the lore learning new things that keep me fascinated with it.

What’s your opinion on Indie games vs big budget blockbusters?
Overall, I think I prefer indie games as there’s something more natural about it that I find charming. The passion the developers put into their games, the community involvement, the willingness to take risks and explore new avenues. All of those things and more really make indie games, in my opinion, more interesting and enjoyable. Now, I still do enjoy AAA titles as they often have large budgets allowing for a great deal of polish, graphical fidelity, and sheer amount of content. However, they just don’t capture that same charm I tend to find more often with Indie games.

I so get your desire to make your colonies visually appealling. When I first started playing RTS online (like StarCraft II for example) I was shocked to see how fast the building process had to be. No time to arrange the buildings in a nice and structured way. Well, it’s a competetive multiplayer game so I totally get why. Games like The Settlers or Anno on the other hand, manage to offer me both which is why I keep comming back to those every now and then!

How did you find out about Founders’ Fortune?
3 am caffiene driven reddit browsing while trying not to burn out in my own endeavors into Indie game development.

Have you played other colony simulators before? Base building games? What do you like about them?
Nowadays Guilds 2, Factorio and Banished keep my attention better then most.
Not to completely date myself but the first I played were Warcraft and AOE originals, and then as micromanaging became fun…never thought I’d think that…games like Roller Coaster Tycoon and Will Wrights Sim series (they’re is a lot of them) became like an addiction devouring hours of my lifespan. How I miss those days

Aside from stroking my god complex (Probably why I have ant farms IRL ) I love that many of these games have gone further then just focusing on the building aspects, not allowing those features to suffer but becoming about balancing the needs and wants of individuals with the needs of an entire community, colony, base etc.

What’s your favorite other game? Why?
I love that this says “What’s your favorite other game?” Lol, well played FF Devs, well played.
Similar to many others, (or just me ) I find it hard to specify actual favorites, @MisterZ is 100% right about the brilliance that is Knights of the Old Republic but as I consider what kept me entertained the most I’d likely say its more the ability of the dev to make me care about my characters.
—Side note, Fair thee well Fritz, Humble Lumberjack, Friend of the Miners found dead at the hands of natives. We shall miss your laughter and random naps.

What’s your opinion on Indie games vs big budget blockbusters?
I try to support Indie Devs along the way and find, comparatively to Big Budget, they generally try to (not to quote myself in entirely different context but…) “balance the needs and wants of individuals with the needs of an entire community in mind” Depending on how good the dev/team is, if they can do that, they’ll be Big Budget themselves in no time, and hopefully still will put it upon themselves to create great games.

I’m Lucy, and i’m pretty new to the whole forum thing so bare with me (I don’t even have reddit)

How did you find out about founders fortune?
I found out about it through a video of Nookrim’s on youtube that my boyfriend was watching. I really liked the look of it so I tried it out myself

*Have you played other colony simulators before? Base building games?
I played a tiny bit of colony survival, but my experience mostly comes from the colony mods in MineCraft. I’m discovering its one of my favourite style of game to play.

*What’s your favorite other game? Why?
It’s a wee bit childish but my favourite game is actually Viva Pinata, as it’s just nice to have a chill - non threatening - game to play every now and then. Plus, it’s really cute.

*What’s your opinion on Indie games vs big budget blockbusters?
I think while blockbuster games do come with the amazing visuals and in-house names, I find that Indie developers truly try appeal to their games fans, and make it more of a community.

I’m so excited to see how Founders’ Fortune continues to grow, as i’m already quite addicted

So glad to hear you’re enjoying the game, hopefully you’ll enjoy your time on the forum as well
The goblins can try to threaten you sometimes, but mostly you need to watch out for winter.
Be sure to stock up a lot of food and show us a screenshot of your village once you’ve set it up!

Hello, I’m Quar, or Quarnozian if you’re feeling formal. (or if I’ve gotten in trouble.) I don’t go by my real name online… old habits. I live near Seattle, but pretty much only leave the house to go to work or hiking trails.

Have you played other colony simulators before? Base building games? What do you like about them?

Starcraft, Age of Empires, Warcraft (Not WoW), Stronghold Crusader, Rimworld, Factorio, … Fallout Shelter?.. probably some others, but that’s all I can remember at the moment. I enjoy the building aspect mostly, but it’s a lot more fun if there’s challenges to overcome. For example, Factorio would get old pretty quick if you didn’t have to fend off enemy attacks, and clear out their bases to gain access to new resources.

You build as many workers as you need, and they work 24/7 as long as you’re able to provide them with the materials needed to do their job.

Unless by ‘other’, you meant a non base-building type of game. In that case I’m going to go with Star Citizen. Technically another Indie game (100% player funded)… being produced beyond AAA game standards. They’re redefining the old limits of game production to whole new levels.

What’s your opinion on Indie games vs big budget blockbusters?

Small or large, indie games are free to create and explore entirely new game styles and create truly unique gaming experiences. “Corporate Crafted” games are all samey, and lack any individuality. Publishers find something that made lots of money and fund clones of it because they think it will turn a profit.

Plus they decide on a release date that they think will bring the best profit, make tons of marketing materials for it, and release the unfinished game with piles of bugs. Pre-Order customers first experience with the game is the day-1 patch, and being an unpaid QA tester on a game they paid full price for.

Basically, I’m not a fan of publishers. There’s 2 publishers that will instantly stop me from purchasing a game, no matter how awesome it looks or how fun the gameplay seems.

Have you played other colony simulators before? Base building games? What do you like about them?

What’s your favorite other game? Why?

What’s your opinion on Indie games vs big budget blockbusters?

Hello everyone

Just downloaded game after stumbling upon a very good video on YT. And as I’m quite the nerd I expect to have some bugs to report, so here I am. Also let me just say this game quickly reminded me of Settlers 1. That should be first hint to my age and experience length.

I really enjoy building games. The list would be to long, but honorary mention to Skylines and Civ. When I think about it, can even throw Rust into this genre.
I like being able to build as I wish, to see empire grow. To tune the details of everything.
Favorite game, well I don’t think like that. If you wish though, Zelda a link to the past > ocarina of time. Why? Really??

Now discobot is pestering me again. And I still haven’t installed the game as I wanted to be able to write bug info straight onto here so registered first. So I’ll be going now, but first let me report
that the Discobot is poorly programmed, I don’t think I need to go into detail. He is even aware of it.

I’m Runemaker. I found your game while watching Tolakram play on youtube.
I’ve played lots of sims, they’re my favorite type of game.
I’d have to say, Rimworld is my favorite right now, I just wish the end game was a bit different.
I love indie games. You guys seem to care and try to please your audience.

Star citizen always has super impressive videos, but I’ve not tried it yet. Did they already get to the point where you can play for hours without getting bored?

If you enjoy PVP, then yes!

Other than that, there’s a basic mission system where you can transport goods, escort npcs, find missing items, defeat bandits… and outside of the mission system you can simply buy/sell goods at various locations, or if you own a ship that can mine resources, you can gather your own goods to sell. These will lead to boredom within a few hours.

Then there’s “emergent gameplay”… Walk around exploring or doing weird things just to see if you can. People use to steal the floating vending machines out of the wrecked space station and take screenshots of them all over the place. Now they’re stacking tortoises on the new planet. A lot of people also love using the built-in camera controls to make cinematic videos of the game. Here’s two of my favorites.

Star Citizen Cinematic - Pushing Boundaries
Almost a year old. Made by another player, showing the landable planets after they had been added to the game. (keep in mind, the entire solar system is a single game map. No loading zones.)

but this is entirely off topic, so I’ll let this return to the introduction post now. lol